Sustainability

As a family-owned company, our philosophy is to provide a safe and nurturing environment for our staff, to be active and positive contributors to the communities in which we live and work and to be good stewards of our environment. 

In 2021, we launched the Dawn Farms All Our Futures Sustainability Programme. The purpose is to unite our 4 manufacturing plants across Ireland, the UK and Germany under one common sustainability strategy. This includes our commitment to setting Science Based Targets for GHG reduction. Through the programme, we have put in place common goals and initiatives under our 4 key sustainability pillars to contribute to a sustainable future for all and ensure the long-term sustainable development of Dawn Farms.

SCIENCE BASED TARGETS

Driving ambitious corporate climate action

The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change sets out the framework to limit global temperature increases to well below 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, to avoid further climate destruction and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The latest climate science from the IPCC – described by the UN as “code red for humanity” – shows it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, but we are dangerously close to that threshold. At present global temperatures are now 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels.

The food industry is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and as a food manufacturer specialising in meat products, Dawn Farms recognise our contribution to GHG emissions and the need to reduce our emissions in line with science. In 2021, we began the process of evaluating our total carbon impact across our entire value chain, with the intention to set emission reduction targets in line with climate science recommendations, to limit Global warming to 1.5°C. 

Dawn Farms is a founding member of the Origin Green Programme and we have already taken many action to reduce our GHG emissions and progress our climate action journey through efforts such as: ​

• Sourcing renewable energy: We now source 100% renewable wind electricity across all our operations. ​
• Investment in Waste Heat Recovery: Capturing waste heat for energy at our Irish operations has reduced total energy use and GHG emissions. ​
• Sustainable Sourcing: As a policy, we do not use palm oil in our ingredients and no protein raw materials or dry ingredients are sourced from areas of deforestation. ​
• Reducing Food Waste: We partner with Food Cloud to re-distribute edible surplus food waste from our operations. To date we have donated over 66 tonnes of food that would otherwise be wasted, representing approximately 212 tonnes of C02-eq being avoided.

We are pleased that our emissions reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTI), committing to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 46.2% by 2030 from a 2019 base year, and to reduce scope 3 GHG emissions covering purchased goods and services by 35% per tonne of finished product within the same timeframe, in line with the 1.5°C trajectory. ​

Achieving these targets will require further continuous improvement in our operational efficiencies, as well as partnerships and collaborations across our value chains, to drive emission reductions in the raw materials we source. 

SustainabLE PARTNERSHIPS

We are proud to collaborate with the following organisations to ensure best practice in our operations and value chains aligned with our 4 sustainability pillars.